phono-semantic compound

noun

A Chinese character (CJKV character) composed of a component which is related to the meaning the character and another component which is related to the sound of the character.

Similar
determination-phonetic charactersemaphore-phonetic character

Meanings

nounphono-semantic compound (plural phono-semantic compounds)

plural phono-semantic compounds

  1. A Chinese character (CJKV character) composed of a component which is related to the meaning the character and another component which is related to the sound of the character.

    'Jeon' is a phono-semantic compound which is formed from two elements of different words in two parts.

    2015, Denise Doyle, New Opportunities for Artistic Practice in Virtual Worlds, →ISBN, page 57
    3 more examples

    Only an opaque and weak orthography-to-phonology analogy rule can be found with the phono-semantic compound type of characters (i.e., the xingshēng zi), which covers 80% of modern daily-use characters.

    2006, Language and linguistics - Volume 7, Issue 3, page 579

    The Chinese character 城 is a phono-semantic compound of the "place" or "earth" radical 土 and 成, whose Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as *deŋ.

    2016 July 31, Sigurdr Volsung, “US elections - I do remember such unpopular cadidates”, in soc.history.medieval (Usenet)

    Phono-semantic compound characters, or the combination of elements that provide meaning and sound: the rebus 干 (gan) provides the phonetic basis for combinations with determinative characters such as 木 (mu, tree),日 (ri, sun), and 月 (rou, meat), to create the characters ...

    2017, Thomas O. Höllmann, Chinese Script: History, Characters, Calligraphy, →ISBN

    Synonyms: determination-phonetic character, semaphore-phonetic character

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA Chinese character (CJKV character) composed of a component which is related to the meaning the character and another component which is related to the sound of the character.

Similar
determination-phonetic charactersemaphore-phonetic character

Origin

Calque from Chinese 形聲字/形声字 (xíngshēngzì).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 形聲字 /形声字
  • 形聲字 /形声字 (xíngshēngzì)a type of Chinese character
Finnish kuvafoneettinen merkki
  • kuvafoneettinen merkkia type of Chinese character
French idéo-phonogramme
  • idéo-phonogrammea type of Chinese character
Japanese 形声文字
  • 形声文字 (keiseimoji)a type of Chinese character
Polish znak fonosemantyczny
  • znak fonosemantycznya type of Chinese character
Spanish carácter radical-fonético
  • carácter radical-fonéticoa type of Chinese character
Cite this entry
APA

phono-semantic compound. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phono-semantic%20compound

MLA

“phono-semantic compound.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phono-semantic%20compound. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “phono-semantic compound,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phono-semantic%20compound.

Source: phono-semantic compound on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.